And Children of All Ages
by Darkmagyk
Summary: The circus is a sore subject for Robin, but why?
1. And Children of All Ages

...And Children of All Ages

Aqualad, Kid Flash, Artemis, and Robin did not live in Happy Harbor. They all had there own mentors and villains to deal with. This made together time harder to come by. But getting to know each other and understand each other was important if they were going to be an effective team.

"I still can't believe they arranged a play date for us." muttered Wally.

"We need to get to know each other," Kaldur reminded him.

"I know that," Wally muttered, "But we don't need them to make the plans for us. Set up times and activities. Flash gave me board games to bring."

"What are you hiding Megan?" Robin said suddenly, and the other two heroes looked at there martian team mate. She had a large grin on her face and her hand behind her back. She was hiding something.

"I got a surprise for you guys." She said brightly, removing her hand and revealing six tickets. "We're going to the circus."

"Haley's Circus." Wally read off of his ticket, "I've been to that one, it is suppose to be the best on earth. They use to have these amazing acrobats too." Wally's eyes lit up. "Hey Robbie, they were in Gotham last, did you see them?" He looked at the younger boy, "Robbie?"

Robin was no longer in the room.

"Were did Robin go?"Wally asked.

"No idea, he just disappeared." Kaldur said

"I didn't even hear him go." muttered Superboy.

"He has got to stop doing that." Wally complained.

"Did I do something wrong?" asked Megan with a frown. She had seen stuff about circuses on TV. It had looked like fun. Red Tornado had agreed it was a good idea. But Robin's face when she had shown them her surprise made her doubt it.

"No," Kadur assured her. "Robin was being..." in truth, he had no idea what Robin was being.

"Well, this calls for an explanation." Wally snapped, and led the way through the cave, searching for the youngest member of the team.

He was not in the usual places. He wasn't hanging around the bars in the gym. He wasn't in the kitchen. He wasn't in the main computer room.

Returning to the living room, Megan turned to Superboy, "Can you use your super hearing, figure out where he is."

Superboy listened intensely. Dang, the kid was good. Was he even in the cave anymore. He waited a few second and then heard the muttering, though it was hard to work out what exactly was being said.

"Come on," Whisperer Superboy, leading them back to computer room, where they found Robin hiding in the shadows of a corner, speaking into his personal computer.

"Are you sure there isn't some kind of major break out at Arkham, or that the Commissioner needs a serial murder investigated, or that the mob needs to be taken down?" Robin begged.

"No, as I have already said, tonight is the gala, which last week you declined an invitation to. I believe you said something about the evils of the monkey suits." Batman said back.

Robin hung his head, "I know, but things change." He muttered.

"Such as?" Batman pressed.

"Megan, she had a surprise all planned for us." Robin told him. "An outing for us.

"That sounds nice." Batman responded, "I don't see the problem."

"She got us tickets to the circus, " Robin admitted. "Haley's Circus." Just saying the words brought back memories of breaking ropes and falling parents.

"I see." Said Batman, though his tone gave away nothing. However, Robin knew He was not just considering Dick's emotional health, but also the risk to his identity.

Suddenly, Robin stiffened, "You know," he said, "It is normally considered rude to ease drop."

Turned to look at his team mates, his glare could rival the Batman's.

"Yeah well, what's the big idea?" snapped Wally.

"Robin?" Asked Miss Martian, "Did I do something to upset you?"

"No." Wally said quickly, "You didn't do anything, he is just being..."

Exactly what Robin was being was the team never found out, because they were distracted my the computerized voice calling "Recognized, Batman."

All six teens ran towards the entrance were Batman was materializing.

"It appears, Robin, that we have a case that was not nearly as complete as I thought." He inclined his head ever so slightly, "Let's go."

"I'm sorry guys," Robin muttered as he followed his adoptive father, "But I...its...a circus, I can't."

Unseen by his friends he smiled as was about to leave.

"Clowns," He heard Batman say behind him, "It's a major phobia he's had for years."

They both returned to the cave minutes later.  
"Clowns?" Robin asked.

"It seemed like a plausible excuse, and if they give you any trouble about it later you can always blame the Joker." Bruce said as he removed the cowl, "Alfred has you suit ready."

Dick sighed as he went to change. Wondering how he was going to save face with his team, and deal with the society gala. At least Babs would be there tonight, maybe she would have an idea.

Back At Mount Justice, The others simply stared in the Dynamic Duo's wake.

"Robin is afraid of Clowns?" Kaldur said, slightly unbelievingly. That just seemed so mundane for the boy wonder.

"I suppose I should have asked before I got the tickets," Megan said sadly.

"It's cool." Artemis assured her, "We can all go and still have fun."

Superboy however, was chuckling. "I can't believe _Robin_ is afraid of clowns."

"Hey," Snapped Wally, "Clowns are scary.

A/N- So, I'm kind of obsessed with Young Justice, I'm also an eighteen year old girl, so not exactly the target audience, I've also recently gotten a bunch of my dorm mates addicted too. You might notice that Artemis seems kind of tacked on, that is because I started writing before she showed up, and I just kind of added her at the end.


	2. Clowning Around

Chapter 2: Clowning Around

The first couple of days were kind of annoying. Superboy or Artemis would make some snide comment. Megan felt really bad, even after he had apologized and made some practiced excuse about the Joker and a gun shot. Kaldur pulled him aside and asked if the phobia could impact future missions. Wally was supportive about the entire thing, because he alone knew the truth.

But it blew over soon enough.

Four weeks later no one had mentioned it for quite sometime. It had all but left their minds.

The stupid mission changed it all.

Why did the guy have to have a clown for an assistant? A kind of creepy clown too.

It reminded Robin of the monster from IT. It disturbed the young vigilante to know that this guy made the Joker look like a charming evil clown in comparison. But he certainly wasn't scared of the guy. He had dealt with gun toting mooks beforehand. Crappy make-up made no difference.

Kid Flash and Superboy did not seem to agree. Robin suspected that Superboy had never seen a clown up close before, and had not realized that they were terrifying, it was throwing the already inexperienced clone of his game.

Wally was just trying hard not to look at the guy, which was an issue when trying to take him down.

Aqualad had sent Kid Flash and Superboy to deal with the clown threat. Robin had to go hack the safe that the files they were looking for were in. I seemed like the perfect plan, their was just one little problem.

Superboy discovered during the fight that he was afraid of clowns. Wally had known that fact before hand.

So when the Robin had finished his part and the files were safely stored on the Mount Justice hard drive he went to go help his friends.

"Dude," He cried as the clown aimed at him, "At least the Joker tries to be funny. You are just pathetic. I can't even laugh at you." he sighed and sent a punch flying at the clowns.

"You just don't know anything about clowns." The villain responded, grabbing his arm where Robin had hit him

"Dude, I'm a clown expert." Robin laughed, just as his foot met the clown's head.

The Clown crashed to the ground and let out a little groan but didn't try to get up. "Now that is funny." He burst out laughing. And then slapped a pair of bat-cuffs on him and wrapping him around a light pole

Then he turned to his downed friends, "KF," he ran over, knowing the speedsters had a slight fear of clowns, "You alright?"

"Dude," Wally muttered as Robin helped him up, " The rest of the team is under the impression that you are terrified of clowns."

"Crap." Robin muttered, and normally he was so good at keeping up his appearances: Good little rich boy for Bruce, fearless Boy Wonder for Gotham, playful hacker for Young Justice. But the clown thing was new and unnatural and in his haste to help his friend, he had forgotten.

"What are you going to do?" whispered Wally.

"Adrenalin," Robin said out of the corner of his mouth, glancing at a still dazed Superboy. "Play along."

"Superboy, Robin, Wally," Megan called as she came up on them.

"Can you please get that thing away from us." Superboy snapped as she helped him up.

"Yeah, I'll just..." Robin started, before coming to his scenes thanks to Kid Flash's whisper of "_Dude_."

Kaldur and Artemis looked at the tied up clown and then at Robin.

"You did that." Artemis accused.

"Yeah," Robin agreed, he was going to continue, going to claim heat of the moment and thrill of battle. Going to say he was more afraid of losing his teammate then of the clown. It would have been true in most cases anyway. Then he saw Kaldur's disappointed eyes, trust lost.

They had seen Robin and the clown. Their would be no covering it up.

"You lied to us." He said simply. That was the last thing anyone but Wally said to him for the rest of the mission with the exception of Superboy's growl of "Thank You."

"I understand, dude," Wally said when they returned to the cave and Batman was debriefing with Kaldur, "But you have to see it from their prospective."

"I do understand." Robin sighed, "that is part of the problem. Though if I was in one of their shoe's I'd just figure out who I was."

"That's because you are a paranoid detective." Wally said, "Tall, Dark, and scary is rubbing off on you."

"Wow, it only took five years." Robin said with a sigh.

"But, it's more then just the secrecy, I think for the most part they get that, and it's not like we don't still have some questions about our friendly neighborhood archer." Wally said "It's that you lied about the fear to get out of a bonding experience. They don't know why. They don't know if they are being rejected or if you were just being distant. They want to be your friends, and they feel like this is just another block in the road."

"Wow," Robin said after about a minute of silence, "That was surprisingly deep."

"I have my moments." Wally smiled a little.

"So," Robin changed the subject, but not really "How was the circus?"

"Haley's is the best, but you know that." Wally said, knowing what his best friend really wanted to ask.

"How were the acrobats?" It was Dick Grayson who asked the question, not Robin. Though the boy considered their to be little difference, in that moment Wally could tell their was.

"Acrobats were good too, but I remember being nine and seeing the show and the acrobats back then were even better." Wally said with a slight smile.

Dick smiled back, and Wally briefly wondered if the smile reached his covered eyes.

* * *

A/N- and this is why I said I was only going to write one shots from now on, because when I promise to write second chapters it takes me a month. I was on a young justice writing kick and it just kind of died. That being said, I now see this in the part of my mind devoted to writing as a three shot. I might, Might, MIGHT, write a third chapter at some point. I'm making know promises and I tried to make chapter have an ending, be it kind of depressing. A third chapter will be very much dependent on responses from this one. I wouldn't have bothered with the second chapter if I hadn't gotten so many reviews for the first one.

Anyway, how amazing is Young Justice, Bereft was great. And how great is the Spitfire pairing. I really want to write a story about them, which is weird because I don't ship much and as a general rule I don't write romance. The last romance I wrote was basically my 14-year-old self being mean to Draco/Hermione shippers. I like to think my writing had progressed since then, but it was the only chaptered thing I ever finished. Tangent much. Well, if you are still reading, please review. Come on, you've come this far, just click the little button.


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